The creature towered over them, one tentacle wrapped around a small, silvery object. Pointed at them, they had very little doubt as to what it was, and that it was, in all probability, lethal.

As the guard, or whatever it was, followed the two out into the hallway, Zan cast a furtive glance back. Moriah made no sound. The guard apparently hadn't seen her; she had been blocked by Mark and Zan's bodies. Or if it had, it hadn't thought it out of the ordinary.

They were seized in iron grips and lead off the little ship. They came face to face with another alien, surrounded by what appeared to be more guards.

It (he?) barked something and one of the beastly things marched up and closed the ship's hatch. The door closed with a resounding slam, and he took his place near the others.

Zan flinched. They were getting seperated, and she didn't like it.

Determined to make the best of a bad situation and learn all she could, she studied what appeared to be the head honcho around here. He looked mostly the same as all the others, but, as he lacked the helmets his guards were wearing, she could now get a closer look at the face of the alien.

His snout was long, narrow, elegant, joining huge black eyes that curved sharply upwards. He had an almost beautiful quality that set her nerves on edge.

She glanced at Mark, who only shrugged. She turned back to the Leader. "Could you please tell me what's going on, and where we are?" she asked hopefully.

The Leader tilted his head at the short human, and silently considered it. He'd never seen a creature like this before.

The one that had spoken seemed to be the leader, so he concentrated on it. Long, beautifully black fur cascaded down it's thin, appalingly white neck and shoulders. It had only two pitifully short tentacles and it's nose was far to short. It's eyes were too far apart.

Yet, aside from all it's physical deformities, it exuded an informal kind of authority. Certainly the other seemed to follow it's lead. It was as though it were capable of much more than it had been trained for.

Curious.

"Take them to a cell," he ordered, gesturing absently with a tentacle.

As they were shoved toward the exit, Zan frowned, dismayed. "At least they could've answered me," She muttered.

Mark laughed increduously, and shook his head.

Two guards followed the Leader into an elevator, keeping a careful eye on their charges. Ordinarily, the Leader would leave such mundane tasks as security to those in charge of that division, but this was a special occasion.

Mark watched carefully, but not obviously as the Leader pushed a red button at the top, set slightly apart from the others. He thought it might come in handy if he could learn some of the indicators.

Perhaps it might help them escape.

The elevator immediately began moving downward. It stopped a few moments later, the doors opened, and the Leader stepped out.

The guards prodded them and the two captives moved out into the corridor after him.

The leader led them a short distance down a dim, humid corridor to a door which opened automatically when it sensed their approach. As they entered, Mark looked anxiously over at Zan. She didn't look very good.


Zan felt light-headed, and she firmly told herself that she would NOT faint.

They were in a huge, rectangular room, with smaller cubicles lining the walls on either side. The brig.

They were ushered toward the nearest one. As they came close, one of the guards raised a furry tentacle, and ran the tip across a glossy panel beside the frame of what would have been a door. The electric beams of energy running vertically down the opening vanished.

They were pushed in, and when they turned, it was only to see one of the guards again touch the panel. The bright beams reappeared.

Zan sat on the brown deck, as there was nothing else in the cubicle. Maybe Moriah would find a way to do something, she thought, trying to be optimistic.

She doubted it.

As soon as she heard the ship's door close, Moriah began exploring the new pathways Zan had given her access to. She knew her friends would probably be locked up somewhere, but she had no idea how to find out where. Or what she could do about it if she did know.

She aquired new knowledge with each passing second. She discovered that this ship was connected to the larger ship through a data interface that she found she could tap. She did so.

Something odd began happening. The entire panel began sputtering, protesting the intrusion of this alien machine.

Quite suddenly, Moriah felt very odd. She knew that something was wrong, had not worked right. For one disorienting moment she could not remember what she was doing.

She accessed her diagnostic program, but instead found herself viewing statistics from some kind of damage controle system. For a far more advanced system than the one she was supposed to have.

She deliberated for a moment. She'd been trying to access this ship's memory for information on where these people kept prisoners....

"The ship. I am the ship!" she murmured aloud. She was as shocked a a computer could be.

She felt the thrum of power, and realized she could control the ship's engines. She dug deeper and found a backup computer. Not very smart, but...

She started drawing information. And when she had gotten all she could find from there that would help her, she used it to access the data net to the larger ship. As she downloaded information an idea began to form...



Zan stretched. "I'm hungry," she announced. "What'd you pack to eat, Mark?"

Without waiting for him to answer, she shook off the backpack and laid it on the floor. She realized she should have taken it off earlier, as she felt a twinge in her back. Unzipping it, she searched through the pack.

The guard watched suspiciously from just outside their cell. He had orders not to harm these "human" creatures on pain of severe demotion, but still... they didn't know that.

Zan pulled out a couple of wrapped sandwiches. She tossed Mark one, then went back in for the thermos. Pouring herself a cup in the lid, she closed the container and tossed it to Mark.

As she ate, she contemplated the events of the last few weeks. This eventually brought home the renewed realization that they were on an alien spaceship, and probably far away from Earth by now.

She recognized the fear that last idea brought up in her, and she deliberatly changed the direction of her thoughts.

"I wonder how Moriah's doing."

"if she survived." Mark said quietly. They had earlier been discussing whether or not Moriah could survive contact with such an alien circuitry design. Mark had taken the position of devils advocate. He was sure that the ship had a computer of it's own that she would have to deal with as well.

"She did," Zan said with conviction. She grimaced at the remainder of her sandwich. She gave up on trying to enjoy her meal, and just shoved the last of it into her mouth.

Mark sighed and leaned back against the wall.






The ship went berserk. All around the cell lights flashed frantically, screaming for attention. Sirens were blaring throughout the great ship, and guards were rushing everywhere. Their own guard paused indecisively, then ran out into the hall to help.

Moriah's voice erupted from a box on the wall opposite the humans' cell. "Make for the ship as soon as you're free."

Almost immediately the beams of energy evaporated with a short, electronic sizzle. Grabbing the pack, Mark and Zan ran.






The Second cried out as her station suddenly began howling warnings at her. It was trying to raise weapons.

She worked frantically as The Leader rose from his chair and demanded to know what was happening.

"Sir, the ship's computers are sending out literally hundreds of false alarms! I get the most bizzare readings every time i manage to penetrate this shield blocking the internal scanners. The computer insists there's an army of intruders on decks three through eleven. No. They're suddenly all on deck twenty-one." She frowned in frustration. "There's a fire on deck fifteen, bridge area?" She read aloud. Since the bridge most certainly was not on fire, she surmised that most of the alarming information was false.

The Leader glanced around at the utter chaos surrounding him, and realized that the rest of the ship was probably in much the same condition.

He had best sort this out. "Open all chann-" The Leader began, but was interrupted by a loud voice overiding him. None of those in the Command center understood the voice.

The lights dimmed even further as power was siphoned off from somewhere. The crew threw frantic looks at their Leader, but the drain only lasted a few seconds, and then the power output went back up to normal. Or at least the lights came back up.

All the lights that weren't already blinking came on at this point, indicating a complete systems failure, which was impossible, because life-support would be out, and it obviously wasn't!

The Second and an especially tall Subordinant worked frantically to compensate.







As they charged down the surprisingly empty hall towards the elevator, Zan shouted above all the noise, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. Moriah must have a way out of here!" Mark shouted back. They ran into the waiting elevator, and Zan punched the ¬… button she had used last time. "She seems to have taken over the ship." he added more quietly. There weren't any sirens in here.


Moriah revved the black ship's engines. She had recovered from the Larger ship much of what it had drained in the process of taking her ship apart and more. She began cautiously programming the interdimentional device.

She knew the larger ship would recover soon. If only those two would hurry!

Mark and Zan burst into the hangar bay, out of breath and panting. "GET IN," Moriah ordered through the ship's external speakers, and opened the door. They ran to it, clambering in as fast as they could and racing immediately for the bridge.

The elvator deposited them on the command deck, and they charged into the room.

"What took you so long?" Moriah demanded, as she finished setting the interdimensional device to transport them out. She hated to use it beacuse she wasn't sure it was stable, but there was no other way out of here. She wasn't even sure how they had gotten the ship in here in the first place!

The humans stood helpless, not knowing what was going on or how they could help. They felt the ship tremble under their feet as the engines woke from their long period of inactivity. The ship rose from the deck, moving slowly towards the end of the long bay. Staring at the viewscreen, Zan realized that there were no doors in this room big enough for the ship to go through.

At that moment, Moriah realized something was wrong. She knew that the device was unstable, but she had already initiated the countdown, and she knew she would only make it worse by trying to stop the process this far into it. She worked frantically within the computer.

Mark felt a wave of nausea sweep over him, and he seemed to be floating. Blackness enveloped him.